They couldn’t be more different—or so one might think at first glance.
One, the bronzed billionaire of Queens, hair like spun sugar, born with a gold telephone in his hand, whose idea of public service was once described as self-service.
The other, a Ugandan-Indian-American democratic socialist from Astoria, who knocked off a political dynasty with little more than a clipboard, a conviction, and a killer instinct for the new media moment.
And yet: Zohran Kwame Mamdani and Donald John Trump share more than a borough. They are, in their own wildly different ways, avatars of the same disruptive energy that has turned American politics into a choose-your-own-reality streaming service.
Both began as outsiders. Mamdani, elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020, had never held public office; he was known more as a housing activist and a rapper than a political force.
Trump, of course, was a reality television huckster who announced his presidential campaign with a golden escalator descent that was equal parts self-coronation and vaudeville act.
Neither had paid the traditional dues; both were told they weren’t serious contenders.
Both, astonishingly, won.
And both won by harnessing movements bubbling and then exploding like volcanoes, arrayed against the status quo and for the forgotten women and men of the working class.
Both saw opportunity in using monied dynasties (Bushes, Clintons, Cuomos) as their foils.
It would be cheap to lump them together as mere populists, but they have are a shared talent for identifying what used to be called the ‘kitchen table issues.’
Trump, with his carnivalesque language, gave voice to a white working class disillusioned by globalization, opioid devastation, and coastal sneering. Mamdani, by contrast, speaks for the renters of Queens, the gig workers, the stressed parents, and the subway riders with too many delays and too few champions in Albany.
When Mamdani talks about ‘housing as a human right’ or transit justice, it lands not as theory but as groceries, rent, and asthma medication. When he defends toxic extremist rallying cries like ‘globalize the Intifada’ he sticks his finger in the eye of the Democratic establishment that has failed to address these issues.
In that way, each man has mastered the art of the simple, sticky message—Trump with ‘Make America Great Again,’ Mamdani with a brand of democratic socialism that skips the jargon and heads straight for the gut.
But here’s where things get interesting, and where the Venn diagram tightens.
Both men possess a postmodern flair. They wink at the camera. They know they are in a show, and they invite you to know it, too.
Trump made politics into professional wrestling—shouting insults, breaking norms, mocking the sacred with the profane. But Mamdani, too, plays with performance. He quotes Audre Lorde in one breath and drops a TikTok with meme-perfect comic timing in the next. He wears his ideology on his sleeve—sometimes literally, in the form of branded jackets or ‘tax the rich’ merch—but never lets you forget he’s in on the meta-joke of modern politics.
Both break the fourth wall. Trump would call into cable news shows unannounced, altering the news cycle on a whim. Mamdani records Instagram videos directly addressing his constituents with all the production values of a well-funded college activist group—and yet they work.
Because he, like Trump, knows that message discipline in the 21st century means being the message yourself, loving on social media and in real life in synchronistic tandem.
Critics scoff at this. They call it unserious, or narcissistic, or dangerous, or all of the above. But what the critics miss—and they missed it with Trump in 2016 and Mamdani in 2025—is that we are living in the age of authenticity-as-performance. Neither man hides the fact that he is selling something. But they are good at it. And that, in today’s media ecosystem, is more powerful than a hundred endorsements from editorial boards no one reads.
Their opponents underestimate them. Again and again. Trump was dismissed as a sideshow until he stood with one hand on the Bible and the other clutching the nuclear codes. Mamdani, likewise, was viewed as a long-shot nuisance until he likewise defeated a poll-blessed frontrunner.
It turns out there’s power in being told you can’t win. It becomes part of the story. Part of the brand.
And both have reshaped their parties—perhaps more than their parties would like to admit, or can bring themselves to admit.
Trump bent the Republican Party into a vessel for grievance, nationalism, and personality cult. Mamdani is on the cusp of dragging the New York Democratic Party further left, rallying the growing DSA bloc in the legislature, mainstreaming a brand of virulent anti-Israeli fervor and proving that even state politics can be a platform for ideological transformation. And he is already causing a national debate as well.
What unites them most of all, perhaps, is their command of narrative. In a world of fragmented attention and memeified discourse, both men understand that a political figure must also be a character.
Trump gave us ‘Crooked Hillary,’ ‘Sleepy Joe,’ and endless tales of rigged systems. Mamdani offers tales of grassroots uprising, of billionaires and millionaires thriving at the expense of the people, of landlord lobbyists skulking in shadows, and of brave organizers triumphing against impossible odds.
Different universes, same dramaturgy.
No, they are not the same. Their politics, values, and visions for America could not be further apart. But style, my friends, is an important weapon. And having an agenda – even a bumper sticker one – that speaks to a movement is what triumphs every time against conventional politics. That is what wins elections now.
In another age, politics was Lincoln-Douglas, or Rooseveltian fireside chats; now it is more improv troupe than Federalist Papers. We are watching two different one-man shows, staged on opposite ends of the ideological theater.
In that way, Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump are mirror images—of both substance and form.
And both, in their own peculiar idioms, tell the audience: You’re not just watching this. You’re part of it.
Cue the curtain.
Mark Halperin is editor-in-chief and host at the live video platform 2WAY and the host of ‘Next Up’ on the Megyn Kelly network.